Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Dangers of Our Little Delusions

A couple of months ago, I got a really fancy bike computer that syncs up with a satellite in space somewhere, to monitor everything from distance traveled to speed. It can capture dozens of bits of data, including heartrate.

I ride hard once a week and easy three other days, so I assumed my aerobic conditioning would be between very good and excellent.

Boy, was I wrong. I wore the monitor one day on a challenging Saturday ride. I was alarmed at how quickly my heartrate jumped beyond my aerobic threshold. Even at what felt like low levels of exertion, my heart was beating about 145 times a minute.

It turned out that my “easy” rides had been too easy. I was riding a stationary bike in my basement and rarely clearing a pulse of 100. So I started going on long, easy rides outside, wearing the monitor and watching it like a hawk, keeping my heartrate from 120-135.

Now my aerobic conditioning is improving, and I’m riding better.

Still, I had really misjudged my conditioning. It reminded me of when I had bad knees, and I did something similar.

My legs were strong. I liked to walk. I knew movement nourished sick knee joints.

So I walked and walked and walked. Slowly. No uphills. And with some interspersed sitting. Still, my knees got worse.

It turned out that I had fallen victim to what is surely one of the most common delusions among knee pain sufferers:

Many people think their knees are stronger than they actually are.

I can remember becoming incredibly frustrated, because I was moving, which I knew was the right thing to do, and I was moving slowly and carefully, and I was taking occasional breaks too. But I wasn’t getting better.

That’s when I had a radical rethink of how strong my knees were. That’s when I came up what I thought was a program so simple and easy that my knees could not possibly be bothered.

I started going to the swimming pool, walking around the pool, then sitting backwards on a pool chair, with my legs elevated in a position that reduced the burning I experienced constantly. I’d repeat this endlessly -- walk around pool, rest with legs elevated, walk around pool, etc.

I did that for weeks. Boring as hell. But my knees actually began to feel better.

I talk about this in the book. An experience like that is both encouraging and depressing. Encouraging, because you see progress at last. Depressing, because you see what a deep hole you’re in.

But sometimes you have to come to grips with your little delusions in order to find a better way forward.

16 comments:

  1. This article stuck a cord with me. I had to come to the hard realization that my knees were much worse than I ever wanted to imagine. I had been walking 8000 steps/day consistently and my knees ached 24hrs a day. I went on holidays for a few weeks and now I can't even walk 2000 steps a day without horrible horrible knee pain. I finally faced that I am in such a deep hole and have enlisted the help of a couch from Doug Kelsey's clinic - I sure hope this is my savior!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have found myself in similar situations, Richard. We all agree that walking is good for your knees but the question is how much? how many steps? what pace?
    The only option is to listen to your knees and do as many tweaks as you need.

    At the moment I'm going for 1 hour walks every day. However yesterday my left tendon started to be painful and looking back, I realized the last days I was walking way too fast. I was so excited that I could finally walk fast! well, there you go, my tendon told me its not ready for that yet! so I reduced the walks to half an hour for the next two days and I'm now feeling better. Will try again to do 1 hour but at a slower pace and see how it goes :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Athenea,

      Are you still working with one of Doug Kelsey's coaches? I started about 3 weeks ago and so far I've been impressed and have already increased what I can do on the total trainer! :)

      Alex

      Delete
    2. Alex, Athenea, do you really need a total trainer to work with Doug Kelsey's programme?

      Delete
    3. Hi Deloupy,

      Yes, I believe it is required. It was the first question I was asked by DK's coach - do I have one. I bought mine used online for cheap and I tried to follow the program in DK's book. However, I was having so much pain, then I tried solely walking and still so much pain. I finally started working with the coach and she has created a program that is specific to my knees, as well as made many tweaks since I started to decrease the pain. Basically, I get terrible stabbing whenever my knees bend, even if it is slightly bent. Best of luck.

      -Alex

      Delete
    4. Seriously? Riding hard 1 day week with 3 days of easy riding? That's not possible. If you ride hard 1 day a week, then what you should be writing is more like this- Am riding less hard once a week and working my way toward 4 days a week of rest.
      You can't stress a physiological system 1 day out of 7and not regress.

      Delete
    5. Well, I consider aerobic workouts (heart rates in the 120s) to be easy. And I do one long, hard ride and three easier ones. And over the course of the cycling season, I get stronger (as do a lot of guys I ride with, who follow a similar regimen -- some even ride only once or twice a week).

      Delete
    6. Hey Alex, happy to hear things are improving!! I also noticed great improvements after my first 3 weeks! and in case you have a setback, don't panic :) it's part of the process! you will recover from that one and more :)

      Delete
    7. And yes, I'm still working with my coach. My knee's health has improved a lot, but one of my quads is inhibited, meaning it's kinda half dead xD so we are now trying to reactivate it :) It's been 8 months working with my coach and I'm not planning to stop until I get back to 100%.
      For me being able to ask all my doubts to an expert is priceless, plus you also get emotional support and some tips on how to cope with injury :)

      Delete
  3. Best thing you can invest your money on is a Total Trainer. Initially I bought one, second-hand, pretty old... but I couldn't find a provider of Total Trainers here in Europe. After researching found a German company which sells Total Trainers and they do free delivery to European countries. I paid €600 and it's great, super smooth. My old machine is gone now :)
    For me the machine has been my savior. And if you are planning to work with a coach I would really recommend you to get one. After all, people pay the same amount of money for an Iphone...why shouldn't I pay for a machine that will improve my health? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Athenea,

      Did you have an injury to your knee(s)? Is quad inhibition an abnormally weak quad that doesn't fire correctly? Or at all? I hope your coach is able to 'wake' it up! :)
      Have your knees improved enough to do light activities that allow you to break a sweat? I recall Richard discussing great improvements when he could break a sweat, and Doug Kelsey's book encourages sweating when knees can handle it. I myself am no where near that point. I still can't stand up out of a chair without knee pain, or maneuver stairs - but I'm working on it! I'm also really really hoping by January I can go back to work full-time but I am preparing myself if I am unable too. Knees come first.

      Wishing you a speedy recovery!
      -Alex

      Delete
  4. I also find quad sets (described in Doug K's book) to be helpful. I started off doing a set of 10 3x/day and have increased it to 6x/day. If my knees are feeling extra achy I do another set or 2 and it does help to calm down the pain. I support my knees by rolling up a towel and resting my legs on it. It's a gentle quad squeeze and after a few weeks of consistently doing it daily; both knees actually feel a bit better.
    -Alex

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Alex, my left leg has been feeling weak even before the knee pain showed up. My quad is really weak! My nerves don't fire properly but I am seeing improvements. It just takes a while. This is only for my left leg, my right one is quite strong. Muscle imbalances I guess... I do have an injury in my knees, chondromalacia grade 2 + patellar tendonosis.
    I was exactly like you, stabbing pain, not able to stand up from a chair etc. I started with very light exercises on the total trainer. As my knees were starting to feel better my work out programme started to be more challenging and harder. Believe me I sweat as a pig! :P I actually enjoy my work outs :)
    The recovery programme is not just doing squats in a total trainer, it is much more. Bunch of other drills for balance, flexibility, core, strength... actually it is the most complete work out I have ever done in my life!
    You will get better Alex! I did :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the words of encouragement and I am so happy to hear about your successes, keep us updated! :)

      -Alex

      Delete
  6. Stairs and chairs have been an impossible task for me. This morning I went to work, running down the stairs. I still have constant pain, although much lower than two years ago, but my legs are much stronger. Stabbing pain is gone !!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. gcoza, can you summarise what has led to your vast improvement?

      cheers

      Delete